Field
The present disclosure relates generally to electronic payment-related transactions and, more particularly, to creating new and/or reoccurring revenue sources using, in whole or in part, an allocation source.
Information
Each year brand companies invest significant marketing dollars to build brand awareness and customer loyalty. The business world recognized that the success of many retail companies revolves around repeat daily, weekly, or monthly purchases by customers that continue to seek out their favorite brands. While these customer relationships are core to their brand companies, it may be difficult to increase wallet-share of the existing customers, and to definitively forecast customers' repeat monthly spend. Typically, a wallet-share may refer to the amount of customers' total spending that brand companies are capturing in the particular categories of goods or services that they offer.
In today's competitive marketplace, simply having a strong brand or competing on price alone may be insufficient to boost long-term revenues or even prevent profit erosion. Customers expect to receive greater value for their loyalty, and to satisfy them brand companies may offer innovative experiences, customized solutions, and a convenience in a variety of situations. Today, customers are attracted to goods or services that are tailored specifically for their individual interests and spending patterns. In addition, modern-day “time famine” resulting from busy careers, family demands, and social obligations may make saving time and minimizing effort in overall shopping experience as important to customers as a good product or a low price.
To meet the demands of a progressively impatient and cost-conscious customer base, brand companies increasingly employ marketing tools, such as, for example, stored value or gift card programs, across many market segments. Gift cards may increase brand recognition by placing a particular brand and its marketing message right into a customer's wallet, for example. Besides raising awareness of brands and their product lines, a prepaid gift card may serve as an alternative payment solution for a customer or a gift recipient. In such a situation, a customer who has a branded gift card may patronize a brand company's business first and may, thus, increase its incremental sales through customer visits. In addition, the nature of a gift card makes it suitable for marketing and promotions since both the customer who purchases a gift card and the customer who receives the gift card may associate such an event with positive experiences of giving and receiving a gift in connection with a particular brand. In addition, gift card customers often tend to spend more on their favorite brands than actual denominated value stored on their gift cards.
Despite numerous benefits associated with branded gift card programs, there may be a disconnect between brand companies and their customer base. Such a disconnect, for example, may be attributed in part to the lack of unified infrastructure integrating numerous brand companies' business operations with the gift card business model. For example, customers may not be aware of specific promotional discounts that brand companies offer, may have difficulties locating a particular branded gift card, may not resort to gift cards except for top occasions, may be unwilling to spend time driving to a particular retailer to purchase a branded gift card just to save on fees, and so forth. As a result, gift cards are typically purchased on average only twice a year with a stored value of about fifty dollars per card. As such, it may be difficult for brand companies to capture larger customer wallet-share, increase repeat business, strengthen customer loyalty, and/or elevate the strength and value of their brands. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to connect brand companies with a customer base using evolving technology and processes, and adapting innovative business-building infrastructure while offering customers their favorite brands at a discount.